The invention refers to a procedure for the production of a self-supporting hollow body of rotation for processing by way of coating, doubling, dying, cleaning, production or other pertinent processes applied on products having large plane surface areas, such as units or webs of textiles and particularly floor coverings, carpets, woven, knitted or braided goods and furtheron thin sheets, paper, photographic paper, cardboard etc., in consideration of the fact that these hollow bodies of rotation are not suitable for transportation and could not otherwise be manufacturered on known types of machine tools. A known problem in such production units, e.g. for the operation of applying a polyurethane foam backing to floor covering is the fact that a working surface of sufficient width (for instance more than 4 m) and of sufficient length (more than 12 m) must be provided for the coating operation. In known coating units operating according to the expensive and unsatisfactory direct coating procedure, bands made of metals or plastics or of combinations of these materials are used as an endless working surface rotating in similar manner as a conveyor belt. However, it is extraordinarily expensive and very difficult to manufacture such bands in the desired widths and lengths for processing operations of the abovementioned type.
Furthermore this type of operation requires an extremely long working distance, resulting in an uneconomic use of the available floor space of the production facility.
Therefore it is desirable to have a working surface represented by a body of rotation, which can eventually be arranged below ground level in the existing production facility. Incidentally such bodies of rotation having a diameter of possibly more than 5 m cannot be manufactured or respectively processed as a steel roll or the like on the usual machine tools, aside of the fact that such body would become too heavy and unsuitable for transportation due to its dimensions.
The purpose of the invention was to find a possibility for the production of a body of rotation forming a working surface, which would avoid the drawbacks of the known solutions. The invention has solved this task by providing a procedure for the production of a body of rotation, characterized by mounting, as a carrying structure of the body of rotation, directly in the intended position of the production facility at least two wheel tires in parallel distance of and centered arrangement to each other on a shaft, adjoiningly placing a plurality of strips of fibre-glass fabric along the outer circumference of those tires extending approximately in the direction of the longitudinal axis of said shaft until they form an enveloping cylinder, which is then consolidated by impregnation with plastics or synthetic resins capable of subsequent setting, the setting process being followed by helical application of layers of impregnated fibre-glass strips in tangential direction to the cylinder jacket, thus increasing its wall thickness and stiffness, whereupon a reinforcing belt of wire or tape will be applied, followed by a finishing coat of plastics or synthetic resin material upon the cylinder jacket which will compensate any eventual surface irregularities of the strips of fibre-glass fabric and upon subsequent setting this finishing cover will be subjected to mechanical surface treatment.
Further essential aspects of the procedure according to the invention are obvious from the sub-claims contained in the following herein.
Due to the production of the body of rotation immediately at the location of the operating facility or respectively in the area of its subsequent use and due to the choice of the materials for its production -- fibre-glass reinforced plastics combined with metal armaments -- the costs and efforts of its production are considerably reduced in comparison to the usual figures for metal rolls. In actual utilization of the invention it has moreover proved to be very favourable that the time required for the production of a body of rotation of that type is very short (a few weeks), which makes it possible to produce the body of rotation simultaneously and within the period of assembly of the whole operating unit. This procedure will result in a body of rotation of very light weight, requiring only uncomplicated supports and drives. Aside of that its production will not require specialized experts, it can be accomplished by average skilled labor familiar with the art.